Various different casual games are well known and widely played. Casual games, in contrast to more complex video games, typically have simple rules and generally require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play. Casual games often enable a player to play one or more levels in a relatively short amount of time. Certain known casual games are somewhat more complicated at least in part because they require strategy or skill, but still have simple rules and are relatively easy to play. For example, casual games such as Klondike Solitaire and Sudoku have simple rules, but take longer and are somewhat more complicated to play. Due to their simplicity and convenience, casual games generally appeal to a wide demographic of players including both older and younger players, “tech savvy” and less “tech savvy” players, and both male and female players. Many casual games appeal to demographics which are generally not as interested in playing more complex video games, and the appeal of casual games continues to grow.
One significant problem with converting many casual games into wagering games is that while having simple rules and being easy to play, they are very statistically complicated and unpredictable because of the strategy or skill involved. For example, some people estimate that there are billions of possible different ways that a Klondike Solitaire game can be played with a standard 52 card deck based on the order of the cards and the movements of the cards by the player. Although a very complex optimal strategy for Klondike Solitaire could be derived similar to those derived for poker games, because so many scenarios exist, it would very difficult for a player to master that optimal strategy and accordingly, most players play according to a suboptimal strategy. Accordingly, despite the vast popularity of Klondike Solitaire, the exact average or proportion of Klondike Solitaire games that will be won (versus those which will be lost) has not been demonstrated to an absolute certainty and no consensus exists as to the probabilities associated with various non-winning game outcomes for each play of the game (i.e., the probability associated with having each of a number of less than 52 cards banked at the end of a game or before a player can not make any further moves of the cards). Similarly, formulas for determining such probabilities within suitable determinable margins of error or limited tolerances are not known, primarily because of the large amount of variables. Casino or gambling games typically require all of the exact probabilities or probabilities within limited tolerances of winning a game to be known, calculated and verifiable. For example, a three reel slot game will have all of the outcome probabilities worked out exactly. Because the probabilities of many casual games such as Klondike Solitaire games are not known or calculated (within suitable tolerances) even with intense study, many casual games such as Klondike Solitaire have not been made into suitable casino or wagering games.
Many other more complicated games requiring relatively more skill, or having more complex rules, or both, are also available to players in electronic form, but not as wagering games. For example, crossword puzzles, checkers, chess, backgammon, SCRABBLE®, bridge, hearts, and OTHELLO® are much more complicated and can require significant player knowledge or skill. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of Hasbro Inc. and OTHELLO® is a registered trademark of Anjar Co. While these games have been modified to enable a single player to play electronically, such as against a computer or against another player playing the game at another computer, such games have also not been successfully converted into wagering games without significant change to the underlying rules. Just like the relatively simpler casual games discussed above, one problem with converting these relatively more complicated games into wagering games is that while easy to offer in a user-friendly electronic format, they are also very statistically complicated.
Accordingly, a need exists for new wagering gaming systems and methods which provide statistically complex games as suitable wagering games.